Get to know Justine and her job: pattern maker at DECATHLON | NABAIJI.
She answers our questions to explain her role in product design and to share her vision of this creative profession.
Get to know Justine and her job: pattern maker at DECATHLON | NABAIJI.
She answers our questions to explain her role in product design and to share her vision of this creative profession.
I am a pattern maker at NABAIJI. In a way, I create the building blocks of a product by ensuring that it suits the greatest number of users. I create the pattern and I make sure the manufacturing of the products is compliant. In a nutshell, I create swimming products with a focus on the fit and the user.
Quite simply: there would be no product development. If you remove one link in the chain, everything can fall apart.
If I am not there to make the pattern, there is no one to carry out the Garment Designer's wishes. If this step is removed, no products will come out at the other end.
Also, at production level, if I was absent for a month or more, technical questions could arise, leaving the teams unable to proceed.
As a Pattern Maker, I am involved right after the initial idea and I make my contribution to it. The Product Manager comes to see me with their idea, then the Garment Designer and I will bring this idea to life. I form the pattern pieces, creating the building blocks of the products, taking the fit into account. Of course, I also have to make sure that the product goes together and that it can be manufactured.
There are two main ones:
- The "sizometer": This is based on customer reviews. We take a close look at the size of the product that customers have chosen. We then check whether the size is as expected or whether the product runs small, very small, large, very large, etc.
- The rendering quality of production files: The aim is to have as few errors as possible in the files and patterns that I send to production.
The role I work the closest with is that of Prototypist. They are the ones who build my patterns in real life, who assemble them. The two other professions I interact with the most are Garment Designers and Product Engineers (particularly for anything related to compliance with production and product manufacturing).
You've got to love your job! I'm lucky to have a vocation rather than a job. And then… patience! When you make a pattern, you look at what works and what doesn't; you have to be patient because results can take time. It's a job where you do something, then undo it and redo it again later... We try, try and try again, and that in itself requires a lot of patience. Being a pattern maker is a job that takes experience. You have to be patient for the simple reason that it takes time (lots of time!) to master the trade. For example, you only become an advanced user after about 10 years of experience.
Firstly: contact with clothing and the creation of clothing. This is something that I am passionate about and I am fortunate to have been able to make a career out of it. Plus, I like to immerse myself in the world of swimming every day, let's say I'm a keen novice but I love swimming!
Although the first memories that come to mind are experiences shared with the teams, I would like to talk about the result of an eco-design workshop. By the end of this workshop, we succeeded in producing a zero-waste product (a swimsuit). It was a leap forward in terms of research in eco-design, and it is very promising.
